(Note: All Visitor Counters were reset in January 2009.)
September 30, 2005 - Friday
The last day of September and we finally got a cooler day. It was 50° outside this morning. Yes, I would love for it to be about another 15° cooler yet. But I'll take what I can get! And humidity was 33%!!! WOW!! I LOVE it!!!
I had a couple prescriptions that I needed to fill, so did those this morning. Otherwise, routine day, housework, which is never done, housework, which I'm not very good at, mainly because though I would prefer a clean house, I hate doing housework, so housework, well, it's always there, no matter what.
Well, sometimes it's good to go back and re-read what I just wrote. Sometimes I start venting on this journal and stuff just doesn't need to go out online! So I deleted several paragraphs. I feel so much better anyway for just typing it out, even if I did just go and delete it all for the online version. And it wasn't about housework, but meds.
I'll eventually vent some of this stuff on my "Beefs" pages, but haven't got them up and running as of yet. Hoping to go back to my nature pages this coming week, after spending the last month on the hurricane pages.
So now, these pages will be archived and a new chapter will begin tomorrow.
September 28, 2005 - Wednesday
Good day today, heard from Seth and Dad both! But very unhappy to hear about cousin Sean being so ill. Our prayers are with him.
I've moved my scrapping supplies where I can better use them, all in one place, close to my sewing too, so that will give me a work area also. My cabinet is there also, for quick put-away, instead of having to haul everything up and down the steps or from room to room.
We have been studying about Daniel and Shadrach, Meshak & Obendigo (spelling?) and how they didn't eat of the King's food to prove their natural diet was a more healthy diet. Our pastor has challenged us to go three weeks with no sugar or meat. So, I can handle the no sugar part ok, since we don't need sugar and I'm really not a big sweet eater anyway, Jim is diabetic, so artificial sweeteners are pretty standard around our house. But the no meat part will be hard for me, I feel like I have to have protein daily! But we decided we're going to try it anyway, maybe starting next week. We shall see. Want to get it done before birthdays and holidays! Charlie, our pastor, said, if he were us (speaking to the audience), he would do it before the holidays too!
Did I say "try"? Do or do not. There is no "try"!! We are going to DO it.
Didn't work on the hurricane pages today, trying to clean up and move books around, changed a couple shelves of hardbacks from upstairs to downstairs and moved 2 shelves of downstairs hardbacks to the upstairs bookcases. Good exercise going up and down the steps, but tough on the old gal.
Anyone who reads this, please, even though you don't know him, say a prayer for healing of my cousin Sean.
September 25, 2005 - Sunday
Newest work added to web pages is on the Hurricane Facts page. I've added charts of the Lowest Pressure, Highest Wind Speeds, Number of Storms in One Year and more. Still need to do the Most Used Name section. Will work on that one this week. There are 236 named storms since 1950, so will take a day or so to count them out, but will get the stats up as soon as I can. The other thing I'm working on is a graph to show number of storms each year. This will give a better visual of the cycle of storms, than just numbers on a page.
Other than that, life is pretty routine. Been doing housework, laundry, etc. Trying to catch up on mending. That, and watching all the news about Katrina, Rita and the new possible developing system just coming off the coast of Africa. We've only had 18 storms so far this year. 1995 we had 21, so we're behind....
September 23, 2005 - Friday
Thankfully, Hurricane Rita has diminished a little. But she is still a very dangerous storm, as a Category 3. I remember Isabel, who passed through our neck of the woods as a Category 1. I wouldn't want to be in a Category 3. No Thanks. It's strange, because, at the time of Isabel, while I was a little nervous, I wasn't really afraid. It was after she had passed and I saw some of the local damage, loss of power, all the trees down everywhere, that I became more fearful thinking about all the "what-if's". What if the roof had blown off the house? What if one of our huge trees had fallen on our house? What if, what if.... Then I began to have nightmares about it all. We have some huge oak trees close to our house, let alone all the other huge trees. Funny thing is that, though we lost some tall pines, the biggest trees that came down were all oaks. What if.... Well, thankfully, we don't often get a Category 1 in this area, rarely in fact. Usually, what we get are the tropical storm versions or remnants of these dangerous storms. And that causes enough trouble, tornadoes, rainfall.
Well, goals for this week are to finish moving furniture around, more cleanup of my music room and finally, more work in the basement. It's amazing how much junk one can accumulate over the years. I don't toss sentimental stuff etc, but I am a pack rat on papers. I print out everything, which is really unnecessary. I'm also a compulsive list maker. And I've saved them all. So now they're going to the dump. My whole life is written in some of those lists. But now I do most everything on the computer and back up my hard drive occassionally, so no excuse to have boxes and boxes of papers. (Other than music, school papers and genealogy of course!)
We've been watching all the Gaither Shows on TV, I love the Southern Gospel and many of the groups he has traveling with them. Especially partial to the Isaac's and Jeff & Sheri Easter. I actually sing some of their songs in church from time to time. Also love the McKamey's, though I haven't seen them with the Gaithers. We used to see them on the GMT (Gospel Music Television) which got cancelled from DISH recently. Bummer. I really enjoyed that channel.
Well, extra tired tonight, so will call it quits.
September 22, 2005 - Thursday
Well, now I'm watching Hurricane Rita. Looks like another very bad storm. At least Texas is doing it right so far, moving people out ahead of time. I think people are more inclined to go also, after seeing what happened in Mississippi and Louisiana. And I'm not even talking about the flooding in New Orleans, which seems to be all that the news media concentrates on these days. But the photos of wind and the surge damage in Mississippi is so unbelievable. Those people were totally wiped out. I wish the news would cover them more, because these are people who seemed determined to help each other regardless of their own losses. They're not just sitting around mouthing off about how slow help was, they started doing something about it. What a difference.
Everyone wants to make Hurricane Katrina a political statement about the current president. Like, hello, he didn't cause the hurricane or the flooding. The federal government has given millions of dollars to New Orleans to update the levee system, what did they spend it on? Social programs. The president declared those states in emergency BEFORE Katrina hit, so they would be able to get FEMA in there to help. The State officials are the ones who stopped the supplies and help. And remember, folks, all roads were out, communications were out, it does take a couple days to truck in supplies, especially for such a wide spread area. I understand that most of those folks didn't have a choice. After all the city was supposed to send in buses (like TX is doing currently) to help those poor folks who didn't have money or transportation out. But their own city workers fled the scene without helping their fellow citizens. And one Louisiana female senator got on the national news and said that Bush was the reason the buses didn't run, because he doesn't support the social programs. WHAT??? If I were a voter in that state....well, guess I won't go there for now........What a fiasco. The President also said that he takes responsibility, (though it's not his fault in my opinion), and wants to make sure that cities are ready for disasters and emergencies in the future. Well, I'll voice more of my personal opinions on my Beefs page. Katrina is a hard lesson to learn for this country. As Jim says, How thin the veneer of society. Everyone, all of us, should have an emergency plan. Maybe you're not in an area that gets hurricanes or tornadoes, but things happen, and everyone, every family should have a plan or have a meeting place for members to meet, supplies and basic survival understanding. Never know when you might need it.
Just an interesting little fact, back in the years of President Wilson, (I think he was the one), there was a series of shark attacks off the New Jersey coast. He, as president, was blamed for that, too. This fact is being published in a book, can't remember the name, but coming out soon, saw the author on FOX news one morning.
I have added more hurricane statistics on my web pages, but Rita keeps making me have to update. She's definitely a record breaker. Check out my Hurricane Interesting Facts page, for the record breaking storms since 1950.
Will winter ever come? I hate all this hot humid weather. Still running in the upper 80's and mid 90's everyday, no rain, high humidity, (though today the humidity actually dropped to about 65% for part of the afternoon). Course, we don't get winters here in Virginia like we had in western Maryland. I miss that cool crisp fall and unbelievably true, I miss the cold, cold winter wind that would blow. Well, such is life. Can't wait until the daily highs are in the mid 40's. That will be so-o-o nice. I'll be able to breathe better, the leaves will be gone off the trees, so I can see the animals in the woods, and dream of snowy cold days. I just hate hot weather. Makes my personality so sweet, as you can tell.
September 18, 2005 - Sunday
Well, this is getting to be a pain. I'm having trouble getting connected to the internet this past week. Seems like every time I try to download my emails, or upload stuff for my web pages, I'm locked out. Hopefully, this issue will get resolved in the next few weeks so that I can keep more current on email, web pages and surfing!
I did, after several days, get more of my hurricane pages uploaded. I now have the Named Storms alphabetical list, which when you click on a letter, it brings up the list of named storms, which you can then click on a particular named storm and go to the data that I have online so far about that particular storm. More will be added of course, as I get caught up. I'm researching for photos and stories about each storm to add to the data. Currently I have all storms listed from 1950 to current date.
It was my week at church yesterday. I really enjoy going, though sometimes it's hard getting going in the morning from home. But I always enjoy it so much when I get there. I really would like to start going to the pot-lucks also that are held at the Pastor's home. I've been several times and it is just so wonderful the way they open up their home for everyone to come and fellowship. The discussions are marvelous and I would love to get some music stuff going on since the group has now purchased a keyboard. So may try doing this later this fall. Time will tell.
September 12, 2005 - Monday
I've still been watching the Katrina and all the stuff about the Gulf Coast. My heart aches for those who have lost someone and for those whose lives have been totally ruined. There are no words to describe, nor can we possibly understand what those folks are going through.
I have been working on my web pages in my spare time. I've reorganized my Weather page and re-constructed my hurricane pages. Originally, I was doing the hurricanes by name, a separate page for each Tropical Storm and Hurricane. This project got to be overwhelming, since just in my lifetime there have been over 500+ storms! So I thought about it for awhile and came up with a storms by the year pages. So far this is working out better, but it is still a lot of work. Still over 500+ in my lifetime, now just condensed to less pages! This is a work in progress. So far I have just the basic layouts for the storms from 1951 through 1980 and am adding more each day. Once I get up to the current year, 2005, I will then do more research on each storm to find out any details about the storm. I would love for people to send me email about their memories of any tropical storms and hurricanes they have experienced. I added some info on some of the pages about conditions in the state of Virginia on storms that were felt here. I've also added in some of my own memories on storms I've lived through. Hope to add photos and more stories later. And I still have all the storms to do that we've gone through since we've lived here in Virginia! (I do have Isabel-2003, mostly done, still working on uploading the journal I wrote). But we had alot going on during 2004 also, when we got the remnants of all the Florida hurricanes. This state had many, many tornadoes, several within 5 miles of where we live, so there are stories to be told yet of those also!
Well, tired tonight, moved furniture around again today. Didn't like where I had moved one bureau so moved it into another room and moved another desk there instead, so my muscles ache! Where's the aspirin??
September 2, 2005 - Friday
All I can think about is Katrina and the aftermath. What a disaster! Been watching all the rooftop rescues and all the politics that are trying to be drawn into this disaster. What a mess.
September 1, 2005 - Thursday
Still glued to the TV watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This one will go down in history, no doubt, as one of the most costly both in property and possibly in loss of life. Some of the older ones, like the Storm of 1935, Camille and "Isaac's Storm" will always be remembered. But now Katrina will take it's place in history also.
